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Latin_For_King t1_ir6klg5 wrote

Reply to comment by filosoful in Many scientists see fusion as the future of energy – and they're betting big. by filosoful

>Once harnessed on a commercial scale,

This is the key sticking point. I am nearing 60 years old and we have been about ten years away from this for about 35 years now. We are still at least ten years away from it now. Fusion is definitely the future, but we need immediate bridge solutions to get us TO that future.

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Lethalmud t1_ir6xn9c wrote

It was always 10 years away if it was funded. It was never Properly funded.

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geologean t1_ir7q0ah wrote

Isn't the joke among nuclear scientists that stable fusion is always 30 years away? The world just doesn't fund fundamental research well enough to see the kind of progress that gets hyped.

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beatthestupidout t1_ir97jv8 wrote

No, the joke started out at around 50 years and it's been decreasing ever since. Now, people think the joke was that it was always 10 years away, but it wasn't. The jokes and reality are converging on a point around 15-20 years away.

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dja_ra t1_irbx02m wrote

You can actually get there though, ask Xeno

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dug99 t1_ir9b77w wrote

Fusion was 30 years away when the Physicists I worked with dismantled their Tokamak. That was 1994.

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Randall-Flagg22 t1_ir90usd wrote

well the UK is building a Fusion Power Plant now. It won't be operable until the 40's but still, cool

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Kiyan1159 t1_ir6yy2q wrote

Here's the issue with fusion, shielding.

It takes 10 feet of steel, concrete and glass to keep fusion radiation contained. And due to the nature of the radiation released by fusion, it transmutes matter. Actually turning lead into gold kinda thing, except it's more like getting Thanos snapped.

Fission is just the only viable energy for a sustainable future. Fusion would be absolutely baller, if it didn't kill fucking everything.

Edit: seeing as I'm getting down voted, I'll add more(here only because mobile won't load the replies I've gotten)

I'm talking about the neutron radiation from fusion reactions. It's incredibly dangerous and Kyle Hill even made a video on it if you're looking for more information. I believe it was the world's heaviest door video.

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MechE420 t1_ir7kfnn wrote

What you just wrote is the most insanely idiotic thing I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to something that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

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sleepyjoeyy t1_ir9ob5x wrote

Lol Leave Billy alone. Didn’t bring him into this.

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ricktor67 t1_ir7sojt wrote

Theres a reason wind/solar is about the only real new investment in electricity anyone is making, its cheap(cheapest per KWH). Sure they are still making new natural gas plants but in 10 years no one will be. We have fusion power now, it literally falls out of the sky all day long. We just have to harness it. Its cheap, easy, safe, we just have to sort out storage.

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lungben81 t1_ir972t7 wrote

This is not either-or but both renewables and fusion development must be funded sufficiently.

Both are much cheaper than what we currently pay for fossile fuels.

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Starskigoat t1_ir9klnc wrote

The cost of fossil fuels never includes the cost of wars and military infrastructures to protect access to oil.

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lungben81 t1_ir9v41e wrote

Yes, and also not the environmental damage.

Both renewables and fusion power can be produced locally and with much smaller environmental footprint.

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johnpseudo t1_ira1goa wrote

Fusion is not likely to be cheap, even with sufficient research funding, and even in 10-30 years when the next generation of prototypes are ready.

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[deleted] t1_ir8ishj wrote

[removed]

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ricktor67 t1_ir8jb52 wrote

Okay, but fusion is probably still 10 years away from anything but proof of concept and 25 years away from a commercial power plant being built. In that same time we can put solar on every house roof and wind turbines in all the empty cow fields(assuming lab grown meat takes off) and knock our carbon use down by 90%.

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epi_glowworm t1_ircld8w wrote

That you can. But in that 25 years, it would be prudent to concurrently continue research into fusion (so we can have fusion in 25 years), continue installing renewables while attempting to fine tune the design and continue improvements with the knowledge that this will never be a baseline load but the load peak chasers to the existing grid, see how we can improve the humming electric lines on those pole (Like Betsy the cow running into a pole should not be the reason why power was out in town), and find out who's the person I need to talk to about getting Zoboomafoo back.

Whether we like it or not, we all have to work together to win this. But I require Zoboomafoo as a condition.

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swarmy1 t1_ir9r79r wrote

Where have you been hearing that it's 10 years away? For commercial implementation to be 10 years away, the experimental implementation would have to be ready basically right now. That's obviously never been the case.

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Latin_For_King t1_ira19ek wrote

Exactly my point.

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swarmy1 t1_irb3qsg wrote

And my point is that only crappy clickbaiters would have claimed that commercial fusion was only 10 years away over the last 35 years. It's basically a straw man.

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Latin_For_King t1_irb823l wrote

>only crappy clickbaiters

Click bait has only been a thing for the past few years, and I have seen these fusion stories since the 80s

Similarly, I am in aerospace machining, and "they" have been saying that 3D printing is going to put us out of business in 10 years since the late 80s. 3D printing is still a very long way from overtaking standard machining processes.

I think it is more wishful thinking and being overly optimistic.

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ioncloud9 t1_ir8fgsz wrote

This is a fallacy. As fusion experiments have scaled, we learned more about plasma physics and needed more advanced computing to model it and more advanced hardware such as high temperature superconductors to go the last stretch. It’s not going to be always 10 years away. We are probably 5 years or less from Q10 fusion.

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